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New Merits
Universal Merits: Allegiance: (1 to 5 Dots) Restriction: Only up to 3 Dots may be purchased at character creation. This is a fairly key stat. Each dot represents a mix of rank, status and contacts within one of three overlapping super-categories - sort of how your percieved by this elite group, higher dots merit additional special training and equipment - its not true rank but conveys a measure of standing experiance, respect and knowledge that each group's best and most secret toys will be kept secret. A category must also be chosen usually corresponding to, and likely an additional sub-category. Mainly this merit serves to improve social standing - within the super category at the rate of 1 die per 2 dots, and as a pre-requisite for additional merits. You cannot have more than 1 allegiance.1 dot coresponds to a newly inducted, 2 dots to a specialist, 3 to a NCO, 4 to officer, and 5 dots to seinor officer. Super-Categories: Supernatural, Conspiracy, Bloc .-Bloc must be chosen as East or West which is the category. Only mortals need apply. Bloc's conrespond to cold war allegiances mostly, West for NATO countries, East for Warsaw Pact countries in essence. Geists, Hunters, Changelings, and the occasional mage are welcome. No vampires, werewolves, prometheans. They specialize in pure firepower .-Agencies have an expanded base. Some large organization, with a supernatural front. Immortals in particular are found here, as are a wider varitiy of characters. Specialize in contacts, money, and relics. Category is the conspiracy, and sub-category of cell if needed. -Supernatural agencies, like the Free Council of Mage the Awakening. Specialize in almost anything, but above all else lore and knowledge of the supernatural and supernatural allies and powers. Category is the template, like vampire or werewolf, sub-category is the organization like the Ivory Claws for a werewolf. Eldritch Resistance: (2 and 5 dot version avaiable) Some folks are just plain more resistant to horrors and things that should not be than others. The two dot version is much more mental, giving you an additional die to assist on sanity rolls, or resist mind warmping effects. The five dot version gives all the benefits of the 2 dot version, but you are something more, known as an anchor. The reality we know and love is stronger about you, or perhaps your just made of sterner stuff when thought in terms of extra dimensions and non-euclidean space. Regardless, you can sense eldritch distortions, given a sense of how severe they are, read forbbiden texts at half the sanity loss should you lose the roll, and finally due to the reality strengthening nature all eldritch distortions done within 10 meters of you take 1 additional success to preform. 'Greater Null: (5 dot version of Null)' (Found in Hunter the Vigil, Spirit-Slayers pg 141) Effects: Your ability as a Null through birth, or through attempted training has reached another level of potency. Spirits not cannot possess you or influence, but you can cause them direct pain leading to +2 on intimidation rolls, retract your aura of nullness down to 2 yards around you, or extend it to 15 at will, you may see and with a wits + occult roll identify any Numina being used witin 30 yards, or anywhere you could see. By focusing and concetrating you can try and stop essence being used within your aura, with a Manipulation + Occult roll against Power of a Spirit. Spirits can manifest at -8 penalty, -5 at a locus, within your aura. You may 'shut' a locus down for up to six hours after you leave. Werewolves must spend 2 as much essence as normal within your area of effect, and three times as much if it targets you directly - Unless you specifically allow them to, focusing on the action and taking no other strenous actions during that time. While anyone could in theory be a Greater Null, for obvious reasons it normally is a regular human, though stranger things have happened. Note: Whomever has it suffers a -3 penalty with werewolves and spirits for social interactions besides intimidation. Finally it means you might have enemies. 'Exemplar Level Abilities: (6 dot rules)' NOTE: Not Available at Character Creation. You can earn a sixth dot in an attribute, putting you at the absolute limits of human ability, the 1 in a million people who have reached this level. Pay twice expected exp for a sixth dot. For each Attribute some special options become available. (Note: The sixth dot gives everything you'd expect from an extra dot, this do allow other additional possabilities however) In addition with once a day when a temporary point of willpower is expended, say by activating an Discipline or a Ritual or what have you, on that action or one immediately afterward involving the ability you gain one additional dice to the pool. 'Paragon Ability '(Special) Each Paragon Ability requires the Sixth Dot in an attribute (Exemplar rules above), and once a day you may in a roll with the Paragon ability convert one dice to an automatic success - and in addition to you may up to three times a day you may expend a willpower point for a heroic effort related to the ability and gain two extra dice to a pool with the relevant ability and one automatic success. Paragon Abilities require 20 xp to learn. In addition for each Attribute, there is an Expression/Knack for such. Upon gaining say Paragon Ability (Dexterity) you gain one of these Expressions, it cannot be changed nor can you learn new ones. ''Dexterity -'' Impossiable Dodge This Knack/Expression enables once per day the character to make a dodge attempt against any attack that would hit said character and only said character. (Which means no AoE attacks). It costs one willpower, and does include firearms - notably an autofire attempt would count. Amazing Shot This Knack/Expression enables once per day with one willpower the character to make a ranged attack with a firearm at zero dice penalty, even if your say bleeding, underwater, out to hit the iris of a man's eyeballs in imperfect darkness at 75 meters with hurricane force winds. Zero dice penalty. One Swing Two Cuts This Knack/Expression involves moving very very quickly, costing one willpower point, but enables two close quarters attacks at once, using the same dice pool. In addition the second swing imposes a -1 to the enemies defense pool. Once per day use, note this stacks with other attack enahcnements. ''Resolve - Relentless Will This Knack/Expression enables you once per day to ignore 1 willpower point expenditure. ''Stamina - '' Just a Flesh Wound This Knack/Expression is amazing. By expending a point of will power, one of three effects can occur once a day. 2 Bashing damage points are healed, or 1 lethal damage point, or and famously 1 aggravated point of damage may be converted to bashing. Shrug it Off Once per day, by expending a point of will power you can shrug off up to your health levels in bashing damage as if it never happened. If you do this with a incoming bashing attack, the attack does no damage - it still connects and secondary effects may apply, but no bashing damage is taken, even if it would normally knock you out. This does not affect lethal damage or aggravated. Damn Healthy This Knack is a permanent upgrade to Health, giving you one extra health level permanently. ''Strength -'' Strength Unbound This Knack/Expression enables for a point of will power all movement actions, including jumping to be doubled for one action, enabling you to literally leap a tall building in a single bound. This stacks with other abilities that might enchance the results such as Vampiric Disciplines. Crushing Strength This Knack/Expression enables for a point of will power, either the following effects. When make an effort to destroy an object where strength applies, you lower its hardness in half. In addition/different, when holding someone in a chokehold or preforming an unarmed attack you may do that attack with lethal damage even if it normally did not qualify. Hurl Anything! This Knack/.Expression for 1 willpower enables you to hurl anything you can lift as an improvised weapon, doubling the range + 1 yard. In addition improvised weapons are considered 1 size larger for determining damage, and weapons made for throwing add 1 extra die to pools for attack and damage. Extreme Lifting This Knack Expression enables insane feats of lifting or moving. For 1 willpower add 500lbs to the current pool of lifting weight or dragging etc, then double the resulstant number for whatever feat of strength your attempting. Using this Expression, you can say lift a small car! 'Zero-G Combat: (2, 3, 4, and 5 dot merit) You are more adept or trained at Zero-G combat or Zero-G in general, which includes fighting in freefall. Characters without any level of this merit, in Zero-G have speed cut in half, take a -4 penalty on all dice rolls to do actions in such a situation and lose initive rolls automatically. In Freefall you may only take an action every other action at a -4 penalty. 2 dots means you are somewhat used to the circumstances, and in Zero-G lose 1 speed, take -2 dice penalty for both Freefall and Zero-G, and in Freefall only lose every fourth action. 3 dots, means your reasonably well trained up, like an astronaut. -1 dice penalty is the only penalty for both Zero-G and freefall. 4 dots, veteran astronaut. No dice penalty within Zero-G or Freefall, its akin to second nature to you. 5 dots, almost inhumanely skilled at it. In Zero-G add 1 speed, you can add 1 to the iniative roll, and any roll to manuever gives a +1 bonus die, such as brawling, or slashing with a sword etc - you need to be moving or in motion for it to work. In Freefall, add or subtract 1 speed, and you can bump yourself up or down one slot in iniative roll - like wise if an action requires motions gain a +1 die roll. Agency Special Merits '''Universal Agency Merits: 'Slush Fund' (1 to 5 dot merit) -This merit represents a slush fund, or cash used for just about anything or everything as needed on demand as long as its persuant to the mission. The first dot represents aproximately ten thousand USD, two dots thirty thousand USD, three dots one hundred thousand USD, four dots half a million USD, and five dots equates to two million USD. This slush fund takes one month to replenish fully. Very useful for bribes if needed. Unlike Resources, a slush fund is on hand and immediately accessable, no rolls required and ONLY has a monetary component. Yonsei Corporation Special Merits: Luck Magic (5 dot Merit) (5 dot version - requires 2 and 4 dot versions before it can be purchased) Dice Pool: Manipulation + Occult + 1/2 Wits Ritual Length: 10 minutes, requires a charm Duration: 1 day The Five dot version is available to Yonsei characters only, it differs from the four dot in the following ways-You still only get your manipulation in rolls you can effect, however you can bestow half your wits score of die rolls subtracted from this total (rounded up) to an ally with 1 minute of intense concentration and describe the action it would pertain to. You may only do this once a day, the ally gains 8 and 9 roll again and thier 8 and 9 is treated as exceptional successes for that roll-If you used it on yourself, you count a die roll of 7 as a success, but it will not roll again. If another affect causes 7 to be considered a success than a 6 is considered a success on the die roll.-The roll at GM discretion CAN be used for supernatural efforts and rituals, where it makes sense. Geomancy (5 dot merit) (5 dot version - requires the 3 dot version before it can be purchased - also requires 3 dots in Composure) dot merit found on page 111 of Second Sight Dice Pool: Intelligeance + Crafts Ritual Length: 1 hour Duration: Indefinite - until damaged The five dot version of this merit differs from the three dot in the following ways. First, the number of successes is decreased by one for an ordinary use. Second, the nine again bonus applies to the first two rolls per scene. Third, the die penalty for an attribute is decreased by one.Fourth, you may preform this action in wilderness terrain, kinda like a zen garden. Finally you have additional options - which cost double the number of successes needed. (So for a small space, it would be 8 successes, for a typical home 16 successes etc). Note: You must be calm as you arrange it, and as a side effect it is not uncommon for a minor spirit to make itself known in the process. It is a premeditated action, the ritual itself about rearranging the landscape either artifical or natural to allow greater harmony with oneself and the area around it, which to an outside observer would seem like preparing to defend a place - moving furniture, straightening picture frames, memorizing every last little detail to perfection - and thus is easily confused with normal bodyguard duties at times. These options are:-You can apply a secondary skill, with a 1 die penalty. For instance, Academics and Occult, etc. -You can apply an attribute and a skill, for a 1 die penalty if realted, like say Weaponery and Strength, or a three die penalty if unrelated, like Brawl and Manipulate. -For a four die penalty, two attributes - both must be of the same category however. Strength and Dexterity is valid. Manipulate and Wits is not. -The first roll any ally makes within the space gains the benefit of 7's being considered a success. This will only work once per ally, BUT if the user is present and can direct them they may choose when to expend this roll, otherwise it is automatic. -Supernatural creatures of a pre-designated type, like Vampires or Prometheans, are detected at will within the space, and suffer either 1 die penalty in offensive actions (attacking), or 1 die penalty in defensive actions (Defense score lowered by 1), or a 1 die penalty in supernatural actions (1 less die for casting a spell). -Limited countermagic. The space is changed to give some protection against supernatural attacks in general, but will exhaust its ability on the first one used offensively against the user. It will detect the first offensive action cast near or inside the space, even if not directed against the user. Second, the first offensive attack in the space against the user will suffer a 4 die penalty - after that the limited countermagic is all used up. -A brief 8 hour ward against scrying from either Twilight, the Astral Realms, the Underworld, the Shadow Realm. You must choose one. Exceptional success: you may choose one extra option, from the above list, freely added to what was preformed. 'Cetal Media Agency Special Merits:' 'The Truth Marches On!' (3 to 5 dot merit) -Requirements, 1 dot Allegiance Merit - agency, Cetal Media With this merit, and faith and conviction in truth, you can do it! This merit represents, luck, grit, determination and a sense of fate, along with using bits of knowledge obtained by the agency to amplify this feeling. Every 24 hours, you can re-roll one failed roll. Plus, with an expenditure of a will power dot, you can reroll 1 additional failure at 3 dots, 2 at four dots, and 3 at five dots. At three dots, however you MUST accept the new roll even if it is worse. At four dots, you can accept the greater of the two rolls, and even re-roll a success. At five dots, you may expend a willpower dot, and enable an ally to re-roll one failed roll per 24 hour period - but at the expense of any re-rolls to you in the next 24 hours. Interview with a monster (4 dot merit) -Requirements, 2 dot Allegiance Merit - agency, Cetal Media This merit represents very specific training in keeping one's cool, even if say your interviewing a monster, or faced with imminent death, and still making a rational decision. You may once per day, in a fearful situation keep your cool - even if it is supernatural fear. In addition when it comes to boosting willpower a willpower point can be spent to add three dice to your character's Stamina, Resolve, Composure or Defense to resist mental or social/emotional pressures asserted on him as opposed to 2 normally. Note it CANNOT be physical in nature. Bloc Special Merits: 'Universal Bloc Merits:' Future Weapons License (3 dot merit) Requirements - Allegiance 1 dot Bloc, any You are trained in the use, maintenance and keeping of a prototype future weapon. You recieve appropriate ammunition at the begining of each chapter - but your a licensed user, enforced with RFID chips - meaning only you can use it or the weapon shuts down. Future Weapons are found in Armory Reloaded. This only covers the personal sidearms and grenades - it doesnt cover rocket launchers. You can have as much ammo for the gun as you need/can carry however assigned to you. Tactical And Heavy Weapons License and Training (2 dot merit) Requirements - Allegiance 1 dot bloc. You are trained in the use, maintenance and keeping of a heavy or tactical weapon, such as a rocket launcher. Comes from that section of armory, does not include the future weapons, must be hand held. So a .50 cal machine gun is ok, but an helicopter chain gun is not. Not only are you trained but you recieve as much ammunition for the thing as you can carry. Western Alliance Merits: Field Assault Cannon 'Weed-Whacker' - (4 dot merit) Requirements - Allegiance 2 dots Bloc - Western Alliance. Its a chaingun! No really. Damn thing weighs quite a bit, but this is a man portable chain gun. What is unique, it fires .531 caliber rounds. Partially its the weapon, made out of the most advanced recoil reduction techniques, and the lightest possiable material - special super plastics, meaning metal detectors and magnetic magic wont interfere with the weapon. Even so, with a full load it takes Strength 3 to use. The rounds are the special part, the gun from day 1 was designed to fire special ammunition - such as silver bullets. The .531's are lighter than the average bullet, by a significant ways so you could actually carry enough ammunition for the weapon to be useful, making up for the reduced mass with a different and stronger chemical propellant enabling them to go faster ensuring the same kinetic energy as you'd expect from the bullet's size - just above the killing power of a .50 caliber round. The merit covers not only a copy of the gun, but extensive training in how to use it, service the weapon, and deal with the fact that you have 'belts' and not cartridges of ammunition. Its designed to fire in 25 round bursts, though with the above training you can squeeze off smaller bursts. It takes two rounds to add a new belt of ammunition to the gun. Belts come in 25, 50, 100, 200, and 250 sizes. For a 2 dot merit, you can buy silver bullets, or etheric rounds OR special armor piercing rounds (AP 7) for this beast. Other more exotic ammunition supposedly exists.You may outfit this with an (Grungir) etheric targeting device. For a 1 dot merit, you can carry arround 1200 bullets in a nice little backpack designed to feed automatically into this gun. STATS:Field Assault Cannon:Damage 5L (8,9 again AND Armor Piercing 4), Size 3, Strength 3, Clip - Varies see Belt Size above, Range 75/150/200. In addition you MUST fire in a burst mode. There is no single shot for this weapon. Even squeezing off a short burst is difficult. Special: - Extra Long Burst Mode, 25 rounds at a time takes 1 action. Gain +4 dice against 1 target, but -1 for each target beyond 1 fired at. Laser Sniper Rifle 'Zap' - (4 and 5 dot merit) {C}The next generation weapon, or so the boys and girls at the lab call it. This is a marvel of technowizardry at its finest, and exceptionally expensive to boot. Using a mixture of traditional battery methods, paramagenets from rare earth materials, and designer molecules produced by bombardment with exotic nuclear particles, it stores an immense amount of energy. And via Light Amplification by Simulated Emission Radiation - or LASER. Capable of putting on the order of 11 megajoules of energy in a concentrated shot, its on hell of a gun without any recoil. Of course the problem is you need liquid oxygen and nitrogen in seperate canisters for it to work, and a host of other maintence issues. Its a god send weapon, with the devil's own bugs inside. Its key advantage? No need to correct for win, and only the curvature of the earth really limits the weapons range - if you can see it, you can kill it. The four dot version, is as simple as they can make it. Still about a dozen times more complicated than any assault rifle on the market, but it does have some nifty features. The four dot version is MUCH easier in terms of maintence, but only has 5 shots, and after combat use MUST recieve 10 minutes of maintenance shortly thereafter, otherwise stuff gets...bad. The only way to recharge is 3 hours in bright sunlight per shot OR, plugging in those batteries to something like a town's powergrid - they suck down alot of juice. With a Science + Craft + Int roll, it might be possiable to recharge a shot or two from a car battery - but its again a ton of juice, lesser batteries would be just wasting your time. As the gun is speed of light, Defense doesnt count, same for most supernatural defenses! Though a handful that distort light or geometries might count as defense. 4 dot version stats. -5 Shots. Size 3 - its a big gun, Strength 2 needed to haul it around. Single shot only. Range - 10 miles/20 miles/50 miles. Damage Varies with the setting, each setting still consumes a shot. It takes one action to change the setting. -Etheric Setting - exotic energy and wavelength directed at a spirit. Does Lethal damage (4L), with 8 and 9 again rules in place. -Ultraviolet Setting - Counts as indirect sunlight to vampires, and does 3A - or Aggravated damage. In addition, if hit, Vampires must roll two success on a Composure + Presence test, or lose 1 point of vitae and 1 point of willpower. -EM Pulse Setting - Unless a bit of electronic equipment is extremely hardened, against nuclear level EMP, it is dead. No ifs ands or buts. A great way to kill communications equipment. Ouch. Against mechanical enemies does 4A damage. -Microwave Setting - 3A damage against livng targets, but its particularly nasty against humans about to do something supernatural - such as a werewolf changing form, or a mage casting a spell. If so, apply the 9 again rule - and unless it was a dramatic failure (Ergo even if you otherwise failed to hit), they must roll a Composure + Presence test or lose a point of willpower due to the radiation effecting the supernatural. The 5 dot version has 8 shots, with a few new settings. 1 hour each day must be spent maintaining it if used in combat. Something else critical concerning the 5 dot version, is an extra little gadget at the end of the rifle, enabling it to have significantly more close combat ability, or greatly enhancing its sniping capabilites. Simply put its a rotating mirror towards the end of the gun, enabling you to shot up, around a corner. Anywhere in a straight line in front of the weapon really. Perfect for enabling all sorts of tricky shots otherwise impossiable. In addition, each shot can be used to do simple welding, boil water...etc. Come up with rules as it strikes me. Aesir 'Powered' Armor Suit (5 dot merit) Strength 2, Rating 4/6, Defense -3, Speed -4 (See Text) -Requires: Allegiance three dot, Western Alliance, Bloc. Some proclaim it the ultimate personal defense technology, the Aesir. The Aesir ignores anything less than a .44 bullet outright. It reduces damage to bashing for other weapons, but is unfortunately a powered bit of armor. The batteries are next gen cutting edge, but....it takes six hours to fully charge, and a full charge only lasts for three hours and twenty minutes. Unpowered, you suffer -3 defense, and -4 speed. While on, Consider your Strength and Dexterity to be 6, your size to be +1, an addition +1 (not factoring the strength, dex and size bonus in - which gives +4) extra speed. Finally the suit can be 'supercharged', equivalent to overclocking. Each action undertaken in this extra charge eats up 1 minute worth of power (200 charges). -You can boost your strength to ridicolous levels, tales are told of outwrestling a werewolf. You can take an action with Strength 9. -You can likewise boost your dexterity to near ridicolous levels. You can take an action with Dexterity 9. -You can boost your speed, doubling it for 1 action. -You can use electrical current to stun someone via touch. In addition it can also be used to electrify the armor, making it Rating 5/6. Final Liberator French 8mm Rocket Revolver (4 dot merit) Stats: Strength 1 Range 30/50/70 Capacity 3 + 1 Damage 2A (9 again rule) Armor Piercing 5, Ilumination, Limited Smoke. After some thought for the big weapons, the French goverment recognized a sort of hole in the existant big guns paradigm of fighting. Namely, what happens if your caught away from your advanced weapon? The Final Liberator was thought of as a solution, a better designed modern variant of the Liberator pistol given en masse to the French Resistance in WW2. It only carries four bullets, and is about the size of a larger cellphone when stored compactly, and only weighs .8 Kilos loaded - .2 Kilos unloaded. The real special thing are the bullets, each is not exactly a conventional bullet but rather one of the smallest rockets humanity has ever devised which illuminate the area in thier path and can be used for a short burst of 3 rockets. These mini rockets are due to speedc considerations considered Armor Piercing, and due to the heat they generate mid flight would be considered fire damage to a vampire. Each bullet does illuminate the area like a firecracker, but also gives off smoke as it goes. It ahh, not as much as could be hoped but better than nothing. The one who fired the Final Liberator is Barely Concealed from the smoke. Naturally it takes specialized training to use. Still a good idea, little weight, for some nice emergency firepower - pity its a goverment worked and arrived 3 years behind schedule and 2 million euros overbudget. But hey, it works! 'Eastern Bloc Special Merits:' 25.1 mm Zastava M98 'Widow-Maker' (4 and 5 dot merit) Its less a rifle and more a handheld artillery piece. The barrel itself is almost a meter long, filled with extra contraptions, its still primarily a spot and shoot weapon. The extra contraptions enable it to work a bit like a coil gun enabling near hypervelocity impacts, with a average muzzle velocity of 2450m/s. Bullets come in clips of 5, and it takes two actions to reload, but once there you can squeeze off a short burst - even with the incredable recoil absorbing abilities of the gun, expect an extremely sore shoulder afterwards. The 4 dot version is only capable of direct fire, the 5 dot version has the advanced bells and whistles enabled with allows it to be fired like an artillery piece, OR a short of special mortar enabling indirect fire. Direct Fire Stats: Size 3, Strength 3 (2 is people help you move it), Clip 5. Damage = Special. Range, 5 Kilometers, 8 Kilometers, 10 Kilometers. Ammunition Types - Hypersonic Kinetic Impactor - Damage 5A* - A HKI bullet has an extra propellant in the charge and uses the electric charge to the maximum, reaching speeds just in excess of 8km/second. You need 3 Strength to even consider firing this thing due to the immense recoil - the gun needs to be in a special position, prone and braced. The effects however are considered worth it, dealing 5A damage on unarmored targets - and against any armored infantry target 5L damage plus the same damage done directly to the struture of the armor. If a vheicle has Armor 7 or above, its structure can absorb the blast and takes that damage directly. If not the structure gets 5L damage and so does an occupant. Due to the extreme air resistance and heat, equivalent to re-entry, despite the truly impressive metallurgical work on each bullet they have a hard range of 8 kilometers, burning up and disintegrating beyond then. Note - Due to the immense Atmospheric Re-Entry level heat, it is always Aggravated Damage and cannot be downgraded, Near-Misses also cause damage to the tune of 2A (near miss defined as within 3 successes of hitting the target) Proximity Shrapnel Round 'Heavy Rain' - Damage 5L* - the Heavy Rain round is a proximity based round throwing up almost as much shrapnel as one of the far larger world war 1 artillery shells. The round travels up to half a mile and detonates throwing out a furious forward facing cloud of shrapnel. The precise point of where it detonates can be controlled, but all within a 45 degree cone extending out for 10 yards suffers 5L damage. Those within 2 yards of the explosive cone suffer an additional 1L damage for 6L. On every being affected or damaged by the shrapnel, on thier next action roll a 1d10, on a 7 or higher they suffer one additional lethal damage from the movement of shrapnel within along with a 1 die penalty to the next action. Category:Other House Rules of note